Rothschild & Co Redburn Downgrades MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) to Hold

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) was downgraded by analysts at Rothschild & Co Redburn from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

MKTX has been the topic of a number of other reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 11th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 11th. Argus downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $184.56.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $116.33 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.17, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. MarketAxess has a 12-month low of $113.29 and a 12-month high of $228.16. The company has a market capitalization of $4.13 billion, a PE ratio of 13.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 0.86. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $148.68 and its 200-day moving average is $165.65.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.53% and a return on equity of 22.28%. The company had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $231.91 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.87 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in MarketAxess by 444.2% during the third quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 38,093 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,638,000 after purchasing an additional 31,093 shares during the period. Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC bought a new position in MarketAxess during the third quarter worth $3,361,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in MarketAxess by 305.3% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 46,537 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,449,000 after purchasing an additional 35,056 shares during the period. ING Groep NV boosted its position in MarketAxess by 655.2% during the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 13,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,387,000 after purchasing an additional 11,886 shares during the period. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its position in MarketAxess by 66.6% during the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,230,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $388,681,000 after purchasing an additional 891,303 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MarketAxess Company Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates a leading global electronic trading platform specializing in fixed-income securities and related products. The company’s network enables institutional investors and broker-dealers to trade corporate bonds, municipal securities, emerging markets debt, U.S. Treasuries and credit default swaps in an automated, multi-dealer environment. MarketAxess also offers portfolio trading, data analytics, best-execution tools and post-trade services to streamline workflows and enhance price discovery across its marketplace.

In addition to core voice-like trading protocols, MarketAxess provides Open Trading®, an anonymous, all-to-all trading protocol designed to improve liquidity and transaction efficiency.